Breen
Gor, representative of the Breen Confederacy (2375)]] ]] The Breen were a reclusive, powerful, and warlike humanoid race, native to the planet in the Alpha Quadrant. History and politics Shrouded in mystery, the Breen were one of the most underestimated races inhabiting the Alpha Quadrant. Historically, the Klingons were among the first to discover the consequences of underestimating the Breen. During the Klingon Second Empire, Chancellor Mow'ga ordered an entire fleet of Klingon warships to invade and conquer the Breen homeworld. The fleet never returned and was never heard from again. ( ) Breen privateers during the 24th century often conducted indiscriminate raids against other Alpha Quadrant species. This included the Breen attack and capture of a Cardassian transport, the Ravinok, in 2366. The survivors of that attack were used for slave labor in Breen-operated dilithium mines on Dozaria. ( ) Even by the 24th century, though, much was still unknown about the Breen and their otherwise politically nonaligned government, known as the Breen Confederacy. ( ) The Federation had limited knowledge of the Breen and was aware of Breen outposts located in Sector 97 in 2368. That same year, Starfleet feared the Breen might have attacked the science vessel . ( ) In 2370, the Breen participated in a palio held at Deep Space 3, during which the Ferengi attempted to bribe a Breen pilot into deliberately losing the race. ( ) Breen privateers raided the Bajoran colony of Free Haven in 2372; they were, however, successfully driven away by the . ( ) By 2373, the Cardassian Union maintained an embassy on the Breen homeworld. ( ) The same year, Breen settlements on Portas V, near the Demilitarized Zone, dealt with the Maquis, supplying them with cold-storage units. ( ) Other species like the Ferengi had developed closer ties with the Breen by the late 24th century, as both species conducted trade negotiations in 2373. ( ) It was noted by Ezri Dax in 2375, when captured by the Breen on the planet Goralis, that they were a long way from Breen space. ( ) Alliance with the Dominion In 2375, the Breen moved from a policy of low-level hostilities toward other major powers to one of open warfare when they allied themselves with the Dominion. ( ) , set in 2374. In that statement, Jem'Hadar Ixtana'Rax threatened a pair of Jem'Hadar guards with possible assignment to escort the wives of Cardassian diplomats on inspection tours of the Breen homeworld, which the script's stage directions noted was "a serious threat."}} The Breen were then allowed access to the Dominion military database. According to the terms of the alliance, the Breen Confederacy received several planets in the Cardassian Union as compensation for joining the war. ( ) after the Breen attack during the Dominion War]] Shortly after joining with the Dominion, the Breen attacked Starfleet Headquarters, on Earth. A short time later, the Breen assisted Dominion forces in breaking the lines at Chin'toka. There, under orders from the Female Changeling, the Breen allowed escape pods to carry Federation survivors to safety. This major battle, known as the Second Battle of Chin'toka, was won by the Dominion thanks to a unique Breen device, a kind of energy dampening weapon which could completely drain all the main power systems of a starship. Both of these defeats dealt a huge blow to the Federation Alliance's morale. The only ship immune to the Breen weapon was a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, which serendipitously survived thanks to an adjustment the chief engineer had made to the ship's tritium intermix in the warp core. ( ) Breen engineers were assigned to begin retrofitting Dominion ships with the energy dampening weapon. ( ) Although the Klingon fleet was able to make the needed adjustments against the weapon, the Federation and the Romulans were still unable to defend against the Breen. When the Federation finally did create a defense against the energy dampening weapon, they forced the Dominion fleet to retreat. Thot Pran, a Breen official, expressed an extreme distaste for surrender, and required the reassurance of the Female Changeling that, instead of surrendering, they were in fact regrouping and attempting to redouble their shipbuilding and replenishment efforts. ( ) With the necessary countermeasures against the Breen's energy dampening weapon obtained, the Federation Alliance was able to go on the offensive once again, choosing to invade Cardassia Prime itself. In hopes of raising the Breen's will to fight, the Female Changeling offered them control of Earth and Romulus if they succeeded in winning the battle. However, she then told Weyoun this was a political promise, merely designed as motivation. In the interest of maintaining the alliance, the Breen were positioned ahead of the Jem'Hadar. During the Battle of Cardassia, the Breen were still able to inflict major casualties on the allies, even without the use of their energy dampening weapon. Up to a third of the allies' entire fleet was destroyed during the battle, including the Romulan flagship. The Breen continued to fight for the Dominion until the end of the war, demonstrating a willingness to die for the cause which matched that of the Jem'Hadar. However, when the Cardassian forces switched sides mid-battle, the Dominion and Breen were forced to withdraw to Cardassia Prime. After Odo convinced the Female Changeling to surrender, the Dominion War ended. As allies of the Dominion, the Breen leaders were present during the signing of the Treaty of Bajor. ( ) Physiology Breen physiology was among the most exotic for humanoid lifeforms, which might have been due, in part, to the climate of their home planet. The Breen had no blood or other liquid circulatory system. The Breen brain was structured into four lobes; this protected them from the probing of some empathic species, such as Betazoids, who were unable to detect the thoughts or emotions of the Breen. ( ; ) According to Worf, no outsider had ever seen what a Breen looked like under their refrigeration suits and lived. Even after they joined the Dominion, their appearance remained so completely unknown to their new allies that Weyoun could not avoid wondering what they looked like. ( ) Breen appeared physically more resilient than most humanoids. When Worf struck a Breen, the Breen proceeded to incapacitate Worf with a neural truncheon, seemingly oblivious to the assault. ( ) The Breen constantly wore refrigeration suits. While the intelligence reports available to Cardassian and Dominion leaders during the Dominion War reported their world to be a frozen wasteland, Weyoun remarked (in his capacity as a diplomat) that the planet was "quite comfortable," leaving the function of the suits in question. ( ) Society and culture The Breen commonly produced offspring at a very early age, at about the equivalence in physical growth of Human third grade children (aged 8-9). The Breen entertained their offspring with nursery rhymes. Breen nursery rhymes were made up of a heterophonic, five-line verse with an alternating tetrameter and pentameter structure. These were nonsensical phrases strung together because they rhymed (at least to the Breen). Some Breen music, which could accompany these nursery rhymes, was written on a Lyxian scale. ( ; ) Vorta clone Yelgrun considered Breen annoying, though not as much as Ferengi. ( ) Treatment of prisoners The Breen were known to use slave labor, and at least some of these slaves were captured in raids on other species. When the Breen were using Bajoran slaves to mine dilithium ore, there were always at least eight guards within the mines. ( ) The Breen were very prudent when dealing with prisoners. When capturing prisoners, the Breen typically stunned them from long range with their disruptors, rather than approaching them and risking close combat. When Worf and Ezri Dax were discovered by the Breen on Goralis while sleeping, the Breen used this technique to subdue them. The Breen also fed their prisoners a diet of algae paste. ( ) Aboard starships, the Breen typically sent in three guards at a time when they wished to remove a single prisoner from a cell that was being shared with other prisoners. Although Worf made various attempts at escape, they all failed, including an attempt to persuade the Breen guards that Ezri was sick, as well as an attempt to short-circuit the door of their cell. When Worf attempted to attack the Breen guards, they used a type of neural truncheon to paralyze him. Even after he fell to the ground, partially paralyzed, two Breen guards continued to use the truncheons on him to ensure he would not get back up, before two guards removed Ezri from the cell. In another incident, Worf simply showed signs of anger towards Weyoun and was again shocked by the neural truncheon. ( ) To extract information from captives, the Breen used cortical implants, despite the fact that they caused severe pain and damage to the recipient. ( ) Language See: Breen language Science and technology Given that most known humanoid species lived on class M planets with an average temperature far above the supposed temperature of Breen, the Breen were largely thought to have had to develop refrigeration suits in order to co-exist with others. However, if the Breen homeworld was temperate, as stated by Weyoun, then their reason for wearing environmental suits, if they were environmental suits at all, was much more mysterious. ( ) The Breen were known for their knowledge of sophisticated cold-storage units, summed up in a statement Captain Benjamin Sisko once made: "If anyone knows how to keep things cold, it's the Breen." ( ) During the 2360s, the Breen were known for their development of organic technology, which they employed in the construction of their spacecraft. ( ) Some of their vessels were even believed to be fitted with cloaking devices. ( ) During the mid-2370s, Breen warships utilized energy dampening weapons. ( , et al.) The Breen were known to use type 3 disruptors, like the Romulans and Klingons. ( ) The Breen also manufactured a portable hand-held cannon, the CRM 114. It was designed to target moving objects and surface emplacements. It was among numerous weapons dealt by Ferengi arms dealer in the mid-2370s. ( ) , a form of rifle supplied to the Jem'Hadar was referred to as another Breen weapon. However, as the episode developed, the weapon ultimately became an upgraded style of Jem'Hadar plasma rifle.}} The Breen made use of memory-probing technology in the form of cortical implants and neural truncheons for subduing prisoners. ( ) Mirror universe In the mirror universe, Intendant once told Benjamin Sisko that Breen icicles were warmer than Professor . ( ) Individuals * Gor * Pran * List of unnamed Breen Planets * * Dozaria * Portas V Appendices Appearances * ** (Season 4) ** (Season 5) ** ** (Season 7) ** ** ** ** ** ** * ** (hologram; Season 7) Additional references * ** (Season 4) ** (Season 5) ** (Season 7) * ** * ** (Season 4) ** ** (Season 5) ** ** (Season 6) ** (Season 7) * ** (Season 2) ** (Season 3) Background information Some of the actors and stunt performers to have worn the Breen costumes are Cathy DeBuono, Todd Slayton, Max Omega, Wade Kelly, Dennis Madalone, and Tom Morga. The Breen costume worn by Dennis Madalone was also labeled "M. Yamasaki". Ira Steven Behr once referred to the Breen, considering the references to them on Star Trek: The Next Generation, as "sort of a running joke" in TNG. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 277) The first evidence of the Breen was in the TNG episode , in which Data mentions them as one of "many races that are not empathically detectable." Jeri Taylor proposed exploring the Breen in an ultimately abandoned season finalé that would have ended TNG Season 6. In a memo which initially outlined the story (that document was sent from Taylor to Michael Piller on ), the Breen were described as "a bellicose, brutal species who inhabit a distant but expanding empire." In the narrative, a Breen delegation was to be met and escorted to Earth by the , formally establishing diplomatic relations between the Breen and the Federation. Although the Federation had long been happy that the Breen lived far from Federation space and had been expecting the species to be adversarial, the Breen had recently made the first tentative step toward establishing ties with the Federation. The unpleasantness of the species, however, became apparent to the Enterprise-D crew when the two groups met. They arranged an initial joint mission, whereby Starfleet scientists were sent on a Breen vessel to investigate a recently discovered phenomenon, but the ship suddenly vanished without explanation. In response, the Breen volatilely accused the Enterprise of being duplicitously responsible for the ship's disappearance, but the Enterprise then discovered the Breen ship, caught in an anomaly, and attempted to rescue it, the Starfleet crew jeopardizing their own vessel in the process. Jeri Taylor was of the opinion that using the story as an opportunity to introduce the Breen as a new adversary "would infuse new energy into the 7th season." In a revised version of the plot (relayed by Taylor to Piller in a memo dated ), she suggested that the Breen delegation meet with the starship Indiana, under Riker's command, rather than the Enterprise, though the latter still undertook the rescue attempt (much to Riker's chagrin). When Riker opted to go to the aid of the Enterprise while it was endangered due to the anomaly, the Breen were unsettled by this decision. The volatile Breen were thereafter encountered by Captain Picard, when he came aboard the Indiana, moments before he was blown out of the ship, through a rupture in its hull, and out into space. The Breen were not referenced in the first draft script of , despite being mentioned on-screen in the final version of that film. When the DS9 writing staff required a villain for DS9 Season 4 episode , an opportunity to physically depict the Breen presented itself. "We just struck on the idea to use the Breen," stated Robert Hewitt Wolfe. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 277) In the script of "Indiscretion", the Breen were described as "tall, well-armed humanoids in dark, armored pressure suits which protect them from ''... harsh atmosphere." The hidden manner in which the Breen were portrayed – fully clothed, wearing masks and helmets – was influenced by the fact "Indiscretion" came very soon after episodes which featured large numbers of Klingons and Jem'Hadar (namely, and respectively). "''I wasn't really in the mood to come up with a new alien race," explained Ira Steven Behr. "So I said, 'Let's not see them. Let's just put them in costume because they normally live in the cold. " (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 277) An additional motive for Behr deciding that the Breen should appear in fully enclosed costumes was that this would cut down on makeup expenses. (Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, issue 69, p. 17) When the Breen helmets were being designed for "Indiscretion", it was decided that they would give viewers the suggestion of a snout, like that of an . (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 277) Terry J. Erdmann recalled about the Breen, "They were never supposed to be important at all, so when the wardrobe department first made Breen costumes, they were kind of simple; they just made a mask and put them on some guys who were going to stand in the background." ( ) The word "Breen" was listed in the pronunciation guide for the final draft script of DS9 Season 5 installment , which noted that it "rhymes with 'green'." However, the term wasn't actually used anywhere else in that teleplay. The Breen were not referenced in the first draft script of fifth season outing , despite the species being talked about in the final version of that episode. As of the start of DS9 Season 6, the show's writing staff didn't have any plans to feature the Breen in the series. However, Ronald D. Moore didn't rule out such a possibility, remarking, "We could explore them in the future." At the start of a nine-episode arc that was designed to bring an end to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Breen were brought into the Dominion War by the show's writers. Thus, the species went from having been used only "a handful of times" prior to DS9 Season 7 to becoming "major players" (as worded by First Assistant Director B.C. Cameron) in the first of those installments, . Their introduction into the conflict was motivated by the writers feeling sure that the Breen would heighten the stakes of the war. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, pp. 685 & 702) Christopher L. Bennett theorized that there was another reason why the Breen were introduced into the Dominion War. "I think the main reason for bringing in the Breen," he said, "was to establish that the Dominion saw Cardassia as disposable – not the partners they'd promised, but just a stepping-stone toward their conquest of the quadrant, to be tossed aside as soon as they'd outlived their usefulness (if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor). It was a motivator for Damar's – and Cardassia's – journey toward rebellion." http://www.tor.com/2015/01/23/star-trek-deep-space-nine-rewatch-penumbra/ As the writing staff didn't have the entire war worked out when they brought the Breen into it, they were uncertain how much would ultimately be learned about the Breen in the series. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 685) Nonetheless, the Breen ended up as the last major villains to be introduced in DS9. Also, the fact that so little had been established about them, thus far, gave Designer John Eaves a feeling of particular freeness while designing the Breen warship, for "Penumbra". (Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, issue 69, pp. 10 & 11) When they decided to bring the Breen back, DS9's creative staff had to reuse the same costumes which had already been created for the species. "One day, the wardrobe department gets this call. 'Guess what? We're going to use the Breen, " Terry J. Erdmann related. "Well, those masks that those poor actors are wearing have a long bill on the front, with only a tiny hole at the end for them to breathe. They snap on to the back, so they are difficult to put on and off, and the eye holes were in the wrong place, so they really couldn't see. But these almost unusable costumes were established, so they were stuck with them." ( ) Not only did the costumes hamper breathing and seeing (the latter of which caused background extra Wade Kelly, when B.C. Cameron asked him to walk across a room, to repeatedly stumble noisily on set, during production on ), but wearing them also brought a host of other problems too. B.C. Cameron pointed out, "They're wearing big, clumsy boots, and their outfits are layered like an armadillo, making it very hard for them to move." Regarding the difficulties of using the Breen helmets, Steve Oster explained, "They're held together with magnets and they fall off any time someone bumps them. And before we redesigned them, the switches for the little blinky lights were on the inside of the helmet." This meant the helmets had to be removed from the actors every time the lights needed to be turned on. "And for some reason we never did figure out," continued Oster, "the nine-volt batteries only lasted minutes before they burned out." Thot Gor actor Todd Slayton considered "the biggest problem with the Breen mask" was the tiny hole for breathing, which he estimated was about eight inches away from the wearer's nose. He also noted that the viewing lens in the mask often steamed up quite quickly. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 702) During the series-ending DS9 story arc, the writers were very intent on establishing the Breen as extremely formidable, tough aliens. This inspired the invention of the Breen energy dissipator and the destruction of the USS Defiant. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 693) The creative staff also wanted to make the Breen seem highly mysterious. "We wanted to give these guys something special," commented Ira Steven Behr. "I couldn't make them the toughest guys in the galaxy – that's the Jem'Hadar. Or the most arrogant guys – that's the Cardassians. Or the most untrustworthy guys – that's the Vorta. So we decided to make them the most ''mysterious guys in the galaxy, with voices that really grate on the audience." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 703) Ira Steven Behr has said that the Breen's distinctive, scratchy voice was inspired by the guitar feedback on 's album . He even had the post-production sound effects staff listen to that album while they were creating the Breen speech. "''It's not what we wound up with, of course," he said. "But that's what I wanted." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 703) Ultimately, it was never made clear how the Breen actually looked, inside their costumes. Whereas First Assistant Director Lou Race "always" suspected the Breen looked similar to (owing to the beak-like part of their helmets), Make-Up Supervisor Michael Westmore admitted that he wasn't really sure how they looked. However, he also reflected, "I actually had an unused head in the lab that would have been great. I thought we could put a little bit of a snout onto it, so we could justify the snout on the helmet. But we never had the opportunity to show one of them." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, pp. 701-702) It was also left unclear whether anyone had ever seen a Breen and survived the experience. In , Worf states, "No one has ever seen ''Breen and lived to speak of it." However, "Indiscretion" implies that Kira and Dukat must have gotten a look at a pair of Breen whose uniforms they stole. Compounding the continuity problem, Kira dispatches another Breen, again for his uniform, in DS9 series finalé . In hindsight, Ronald D. Moore regarded this continuity glitch as one of numerous frustrating details that, due to their sheer quantity, the creative team hadn't managed to keep track of. On the other hand, Ira Steven Behr proposed an in-universe explanation, saying, "''There's ''nothing in those helmets. I don't think there's a guy in there, which is something we never got around to saying." After a pause, he added, "''Or maybe there's a little slug, some tiny little creature in there. I never wanted them to be humanoid in any way." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 702) Despite this, not only did the aforementioned script of "Indiscretion" regard the Breen as "humanoid" but so do the reference works Star Trek Encyclopedia (3rd ed., p. 54) and Star Trek: Star Charts (p. 35) as well as the StarTrek.com database entry about the species. The model for the Breen helmet closely resembles a Ubese Bounty Hunter suit that Princess Leia wore to Jabba the Hutt's Palace in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The writers of Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection (issue 69, pp. 16 & 17) approved of the Breen. They regarded them as "vitally important to the Dominion War" and further remarked, "Despite the hazards of the costume, the Breen proved a tough and formidable adversary that ratcheted up the threat to the Federation in the final months of the Dominion War. Without them, the final story arc would not have been so tense and compelling." Marco Palmieri wrote, "You have to hand it to the Breen: For a civilization that started out as a sometimes-mentioned but never seen running gag on ''The Next Generation, they eventually came incredibly close to handing the Founders a decisive victory in the Dominion War. Along the way, the Breen not only destroyed the Starship Defiant, they succeeded where no other enemy empire had before: attacking Starfleet Headquarters on Earth. Even the Klingons had reason to fear them ... considering an Imperial fleet sent to conquer the Breen homeworld was never heard from again. That's not a bad résumé as Star Trek villains go." ( ) Keith R.A. DeCandido approved of seeing the Breen joining with the Dominion. http://www.tor.com/2015/01/27/star-trek-deep-space-nine-rewatch-qtil-death-do-us-partq/ critic cited the Breen as his favorite race. ( ) Apocrypha In ''Star Trek Online, the Breen were the main antagonists in a short episode arc. During the arc, the Breen invaded space, hoping to acquire technology. In the novel Zero Sum Game, the Breen are revealed to be comprised of several different species, with "Breen" as the name of a society, rather than a single species. The primary reason for this is to judge individuals on their skills and abilities rather than their physical appearance. In reality, however, this approach was taken by Zero Sum Game author David Mack because he believed that trying to reconcile all the canonical "facts" about the Breen's physiology would otherwise be impossible, as he thought there were too many discrepancies. ( ) Among the species in the Breen Confederacy mentioned in Zero Sum Game, only four were mentioned by name and described in some detail, and an additional fifth species was described in the novel Plagues of Night. Two more species are named in the novels Disavowed and The Hall of Heroes. They include: * The , a humanoid species and a founding species of the Confederacy, who possessed (in the case of the character Chot Nar) bronze-tinted skin, white hair, and jade-colored eyes. * The , a furred, lupine humanoid species whose snouted facial structure served as the inspiration for the archetypical Breen helmet design. * The , a large, powerful humanoid species who often served in the Confederacy military thanks to their strength. They are noted to possess four-lobed brains that make their minds difficult to read, as well as an unspecified number of hearts. * The , a humanoid species whose bodies possessed no blood and evaporated when exposed to normal M-class atmospheres, requiring them to wear actual refrigeration suits to function outside of their regular environment. They also served commonly in the Confederacy military alongside the Paclu. * The , a humanoid species with cleft arms and legs with highly accurate sensory organs located along their lengths that granted them exceptional tactile abilities, making them highly effective engineers. The enhanced sensory abilities of the species also rendered them prone to motion sickness. * The , a humanoid species that can easily mingle among the peoples of the Federation. This is possibly a typo referring to the Silwaan, since the Silgov have appeared in other novels where they were not described as members of the Breen Confederacy. * The , a humanoid species with no nose and a pale, scaly complexion. Decipher's Role Playing Game supplement explained the discrepancy over whether anyone had seen a Breen and lived by establishing that the Breen disintegrate upon exposure to atmosphere. External links * * ca:Breen cs:Breen de:Breen es:Breen fr:Breen ja:ブリーン nl:Breen pl:Breen pt:Breen ru:Брины Category:Species